


Mother is Love

by spyfodder



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mom Reyes, cries forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 06:32:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7349389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyfodder/pseuds/spyfodder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack remembered that Mrs. Reyes had given him pasole for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother is Love

"Gabriel visited me again last night. He's such a good boy."

Maria Paola Reyes loved her son, the one who was left, who kept her company once every two weeks. Alejandro had estranged himself, Sophia had three children of her own, (her last daughter, four years old now, named Gabriella,) and had hardly enough time to visit her own mother between two full-time jobs and coaching soccer on the weekends. Extended family, friends, stopped by when they could, to cry and visit.

"Of course, mama, he's a sweetheart."

No one had had the heart to tell a prideful and dying woman that her oldest boy had fallen six years prior.

She was happy, at least, and that was all that mattered. No one thought less of her for her imagination, whatever her addled mind brought to the fore every two weeks when _El Noches Que Me Quieras_ aired, as long as she still smiled past the inevitable that had taken her body.

She was happy, and that's all Gabriel wanted for her. 

 

"That Carlita! She is such a hussie!"

Gabriel laughed quietly where he laid next to his mother, head tucked to her shoulder. The episode had ended, and he moved to turn down the volume, no need for hyperactive commercials, but Gabriel disliked absolute silence in the room. 

"I certainly hope Santos gets with Anna, he deserves better," Maria said as she settled down, half-blind eyes turning to the dark shape of her son, who was sitting up now. His hand, warm and dry, was still twined with hers between them. 

"I guess we'll find out next time," Gabriel murmured, moving to stroke her thin, patchy hair from her worn and sagging face. He lauded himself for being the image of death, when in truth... the husk of a woman before him was the truth. The frightening, slow end. 

"Good, good," Maria smiled, patting the hand in her own, looking so tired, so worn out, the very body she inhabited fighting against the machines that kept her alive. Her expression suddenly brightened, how she did when she was going to say or ask something (most likely words that had been said numerous times, her memory failing,) and Gabriel braced himself. 

"How is that sweet boy Jack? You used to talk about him so much," she said, soft fingertips running over the back of her son's hand. 

Whatever was left of Gabriel's heart stuttered, and he sucked in a sharp breath. Anger, then emptiness, came and went. She didn't know. He couldn't lie to her, though, a cardinal sin against the one person who still loved him in the world, no matter what. 

"I don't know, mama, we haven't talked much."

He came to lay back down next to her, head on her breast, hearing the dull sound of her weak heart. He couldn't look at her, not with that topic in the air. Her free hand came to rest on his cheek, stroking.

"You should go talk to him. I'm sure he misses you, too." Guileless.

"I don't think so. We had a... fight," Gabriel snorted, brows furrowing. 

" _Mijo_... shouldn't let your temper get the better of you. My fiery boy... you never know until you try," she pat his cheek, scolding. 

"But mama, it was mine, my team! I made it work and - and they just handed it to him!" Black smoke coiled from Gabriel's lips before being sucked back in by a deep breath. Anger. He had to control his anger. He couldn't... not in front of her. "Jack just took it, and I thought we... I don't know. I hoped he would be on my side." 

There was a wet burning in his eyes, and Gabriel Reyes hated everything right then. 

Mama, though, had come to hold his head against her breast, stroking and kissing the mess of curls on his head. Loving. All she could remember were the kind words she had heard of this boy Jack and that he and her son had been friends. Had been good to her boy, had been good for him. 

"Sometimes not everything is as it seems, mijo, and sometimes you lose track of things when they happen. Talk to him, Gabi. I'm sure he's still on your side," she smiled despite the tiredness that was creeping into her voice. 

Gabriel Reyes cuddled into the side of his mother, eyes closed tight, before relaxing with a deep sigh. "I'll try, mama, I'll try and I'll come visit you and we'll watch the season finale, alright?" He moved to sit up, scrubbing at his eyes in annoyance. 

"Of course, mijo. I'm so proud of you," Maria said, reaching and stroking his face, saying nothing about the wetness on his face.

He stays, until his grey and waning mother fell asleep, leaning to kiss her brow, give her hair one last touch before the taloned gloves went back on. The mask once more equipped. 

Behind the white angles of his facade, no one knew his heart hurt. 

 

Maria Paola Reyes' room was empty, two weeks later. 

Gabriel Reyes never thought that he would watch his mother's casket being laid down next to his own gravestone.

He hadn't gone to talk to Jack, let alone try to find him. The two weeks he had been gone had been quiet. The Reaper had rested. Reyes' mind had overwhelmed him, even in his current state, to the point that even immense violence didn't seem attractive. His mother had planted a seed in him and it was growing without his permission, right next to his escalating fury of even considering...

Crimson eyes turned, glaring hotly from beneath the hem of a black hood, fists clenching where they lay in Reyes' hoodie's belly pocket. 

Jack's gaze was tired, but soft. Disarming. It worked, though, as the heat of rage was expelled along with a smoky black breath. Gabriel turned his attention back to the funeral some distance away. 

Morrison was silent through the whole procession. 

"She wanted me to talk to you," Gabriel said, throat hurting and eyes wet again. He didn't dare move to wipe at his eyes. 

Jack shifted. There was an arm across the back of Reyes' shoulders, and he didn't protest, sucking in a deep breath. He remembered himself doing the same when Jack was bawling his eyes out about his own father's death. He wanted to be angry and mad and punch the asshole next to him, but all that came out was a thick, shaking huff of air. 

"I'll listen."

Gabriel leaned on the other man, fingers curling into scratchy wool of Jack's pea coat, hiding his wet and pinched face in its collar. 

-

All he really wanted to do was fall asleep for an eternity. He could barely find the strength to pull the cup of coffee Jack had bought him to his lips. He remembered Jack had gotten himself sick on onion rings and a milkshake three days after his father's death. Some kind of therapy.

"You went along with it. Just took my team and you didn't listen or didn't want to hear," he said after long strings of words that had made up his explanation. It was bitter, but he swallowed it, for her. "She said things don't always appear how they seem. I don't know if it's true here, Jack."

Jack looked down, almost guiltily, and hid his mouth behind his own mug of coffee, expression terse. 

"After they handed me the team, they told me that you had been relocated for assigned duty. I didn't even know about Blackwatch. I didn't question the intel they gave us, how it was obtained... it was just... missions," Jack murmured, eyes closed. "Every time I saw you, you were more and more angry, and I had no idea what I had done to piss you off so bad."

"You became their fucking public representation, Jack, on top of all my hard work," Reyes hissed. No, calm down. "On top of all the things that started happening... I couldn't take it. The shit they made us do in Blackwatch. I couldn't let them, or you, get away with it. I was... I was..." Gabriel frowned, looking for the words.

Words that he had thought about so fleetingly, so briefly, that beyond his fury he could not think about them for too long. 

"Sometimes I think that we were just the right pawns at the right time," Jack said softly, still not looking at Gabriel. "They martyred me. Made me their golden boy. I never wanted it. I just... I just thought we were doing some good in the world." 

"Pawns," Gabriel rumbled, scarlet eyes narrowed, staring at the other man who sat across the table from him. Some things weren't what they seemed. Jack finally looked at him.

"I think we're going to have more to talk about, Morrison."

**Author's Note:**

> ((then everything was worked out and Reaper went to work finding the people who had betrayed himself and Jack))  
> I would like to write more on this, but tbd.


End file.
